Links for Sunday…
- Juan C. Rodriguez of The Sun Sentinel says (via Twitter) that the Marlins never give out no-trade clauses, but they gave one to Javier Vazquez to get his price down.
- Meanwhile, Ben Goessling of MASN Sports looks at some pitching options for the Nationals now that Vazquez is off the board.
- With the Yanks and Derek Jeter still far apart during negotiations, Seth Livingstone of USA Today looks at some other star Yankees that ended their career elsewhere.
- Jayson Werth told CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury that he's not close to signing via text message. "It’s very early. I will make an informed decision in due time," said the free agent outfielder.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports explains why Juan Uribe would make sense for the Dodgers.
- Dejan Kovacevic of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders if the Pirates are sincere with their interest in several big name free agents, but he notes they do in fact have money to spend.
- In the wake of Victor Martinez signing with the Tigers, John Tomase of The Boston Herald looks at how the Red Sox have done with their extra draft picks over the years.
- SI.com's Jon Heyman says that Magglio Ordonez remains a possibility for the Tigers (Twitter link), who have already committed close to $90MM for four players this offseason.
- Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News explains how declining his option and not offering Vladimir Guerrero arbitration suggests the Rangers want him back.
- Right-hander Waldis Joaquin, who was released by the Giants then claimed off waivers by the White Sox, have rejected the claim and elected to become a free agent according to MLB.com's Scott Merkin (Twitter link).
Disappointed Joaquin rejected the claim, he probably could have contributed positively in the pen with Coop’s teachings.
Not thrilled about Uribe on the Dodgers, as it would likely require a three-year committment. Rather see Orlando Hudson brought back and/or Bill Hall.
After reading the article about Uribe, it makes sense to me. With Blake and Furcal both getting older and nearing the end of their contracts, Uribe would be a good insurance policy given the fact that he can play so many infield positions.
what’s a test message?
uribe makes sense for the dodgers, but the money wont make sense.
A test message is a message similar to ‘Where’s Waldo’, but without pictures. The object is to find the misspelled word.
Can we please dispense with the constant nitpicking on these blogs?
Evan Grant says a lot of things that don’t work out.
It’s hard to put stock in anything Evan Grant says after he left Pedroia completely off his 2008 MVP ballot.
I’m tired of hearing all of this “Uribe and the Dodgers are a good fit” talk; he’s a good fit for many teams in need of a good infielder (which are a lot).
Can Magglio play 1B? How did he look in the OF last year? He’s getting older and has had a few injuries the past two years. I’m just wondering if the Orioles should add him to the 6-8 players they’re looking at for first base.
He can still play a passable RF. For what kind of offense he can give you, its worth tolerating his defense. But no, he is not so down on his chips that he is willing to take a position change at his age
uribe is just a good solid bat i think he is better for the giants myself but the dodgers are an interesting team i see them bidding high for uribe
Interesting, Vazquez…The Marlins are having a good off-season on my opinion, actually a really good one, actually a great off-season…They pretty much traded Uggla for 4 players…and the two signings I think are going to be huge. Vazquez is back in the NL in a right handed pitchers ballpark, in a non-pressure enviorment surrounded by good people and his home and a very small amount of media. The problem is his 2010 FBv which was 18.7 and I’m pretty sure it was the ONLY year of his career where his FBv wasn’t above 91. Thats interesting, but I have a really, really good feeling about this and especially the Marlins in general. I love the Marlins. I think they are going to be a great time in ’11 and for years to come.
I love it. The Uggla trade was so great that you refer to it as “Uggla for 4 players”. Great in terms of quantity but the quality of the two actually included in the deal (Infant and Dunn) isn’t up to snuff.
I hear and respect the argument…But think about it. Infante’s glove, speed, on-base, and gap to gap power could be worth as much in the win total as Uggla’s homers and thats pretty much it. Uggla is slow and bad with the glove. Dunn had a bad WHIP but a fine ERA and k/9. He is also young, under control for a long time, and throws incredibly hard from the left side much less. They signed Buck and Vazquez which will improve the team a great deal and wouldn’t be able to if they had kept Uggla.
I completely agree with you. While I liked Uggla, he was the epitome of why the Marlins have been so mediocre in the last two seasons. His defense is atrocious and he strikes out a ton. Give me contact hitters, good pitching, and solid defense. That is what will take the fish to the next level. Besides, its not like we don’t have other power hitters. STANTON, STANTON, STANTON!
Yeah man absolutley. Larry and Mike are two of the smartest guys in Baseball. And I believe they made some great moves and were only weeks into the off-season. I say the Marlins mar a strong case for the division/wild card next year
Yeah, Larry’s a real genius. Miguel Cabrera for 6 players was such an awesome deal, and he got 4 players (really 2) for sending our best power hitter to a division rival. He’s so smart it’s blowing my mind.
if you asked any other club at the time if they would have done the deal under money restrictions and they would all have said yes. everyone thought maybin and miller were going to be great.
“They pretty much traded Uggla for 4 players”
And the Red Sox traded 4 players for Curt Schilling… Personally I’m joining the crowd that says the Marlins got hosed on Uggla trade.
In about 6-10 months you’ll be saying, “I should have trusted Spanny. The Spandy man can, the spandy man can. The Spandy man can because he makes the world taste good. And he knows his Baseball!”
in about 6-10 months Uggla will have hit his 30th homerun of an amazing season, Dunn will have an ERA over 4.00 and Infante will be on the bench and you’ll be pretending you didn’t make this poor assessment
Shocked they gaev Vazquez a no-trade clause.
Tomase waxes eloquently about the 2 F/A compensatory picks the BoSox got that worked out as quality players. Except for those two, nothing else has worked out. Picks are highly speculative. Even less than 10% of first round picks turn out to be quality players. There needs to be a balance between the present and the future in the BoSox calculation, and Theo is overvaluing the future to the detriment of the present. A long view is not necessarily bad. But the BoSox need to win BOTH now and later. It can’t be all now, and it can’t be all later. Theo’s philosophy is all later. That’s not gonna work. We’re gonna end up proverbially carrying his head down Boylston Street on a pike if he doesn’t rebalance his thought process to include “winning now,” at the expense of some God Forsaken draft picks.
Theo botched the V-Mart deal badly. I would have offered him 4 yrs. and $44MM during the season to take him out of the F/A market in the first place. And its only $2MM more than Theo ended up offering now. I believe he would have stayed if he got such a serious offer, back then. Instead, Theo insulted him with a 2 year, $18MM offer. Now, we have no decent catcher and no quality middle of the lineup switch hitter. Nice job.
Maybe 3 or 4 years from now, the V-Mart compensatory picks will pan out to help us, or maybe not. But until then, and quite possibly beyond then, we’ll suck badly behind the plate and continue to sit home, watching the playoffs on TV. If so, the one thing I can guarantee is that Theo will not be GM of the Red Sox any longer. They are on the verge of becoming irrelevant in this town, and failure to focus on winning now will ensure that irrelevancy. Ticket sales and TV ratings will follow, as they have already begun to do. As the revenues dry up, so will Theo’s future surely wither.
The VMart and Beltre situations have much less to do with “winning now” or “winning in the future” than you are suggesting. The reason that both will be let go is a combination of the players’ age and contract demands, the compensatory picks received, and roster/payroll flexibility retained. It makes NO sense to sign Beltre and VMart when Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, and maybe Albert Pujols are free agents next year. Signing these players effectively elminates the roster and payroll flexibility required to sign AGon next year as a F/A. If you sign Victor, you pencil him in at C for 1-2 years max (where is defense is atrocious) and DH/1B for 2-3 years where is offense is simply not worth $12MM. The separation between fans an knowlegable baseball people lies in the ability to see the big picture. $40+ million, 1 first round and 1 supplemental, plus the roster and payroll flexibility to go after the player that the team really covets is much greater than retaining Victor Martinez for the Red Sox.
Uhm, yes it does/would make sense to sign either of V-Mart or Beltre this year, regardless of whom becomes a free agent next year. You see, V-Mart was going to catch for us, not play 1B, and then he would presumably have switched to DH to take Papi’s place, with his circa .300BA, 20+HR and 90+/- RBI, switch hitting. Beltre also doesn’t play 1B. He plays 3B and hits .280+, 25+HR and 100+/- RBI. Neither of them would block us from going after A-Gonz, Prince or Pujols, all of whom play 1B.
Its ridiculous for you to say that V-Mart’s defense is “atrocious.” He was about average as a catcher for 2010. But his offense is top tier for that position and his “thrown out stealing” had drastically improved by the second half of 2010. He was also excellent at calling games and had a superlative relationship with the pitching staff. If you find his defense atrocious, then how can you say his offense doesn’t justify a salary of $12MM? First, we paid (for 2010) and are paying (for 2011) Big Papi $12.5MM for very similar offensive numbers. Second, Theo, Andy McPhail and Dave Dombrowski all disagree with you, because they each offered V-Mart $12MM per year in offers of varying duration; the Orioles and Tigers having absolutely NO intention of having V-Mart act as their primary catcher. Seems you’re not as knowledgeable as you’d like to think you are.
Naturally, you’re assuming that we need some place to move Youk, and that could be accomodated in several other ways, should we sign a big name 1B F/A. Besides, Youk is only inked through 2012, so we are talking one season at most of juggling him or trading him, or juggling or trading Beltre, whichever the braintrust decides at the time. In any case, we’ll broach that issue when we ink such a big name F/A to play a corner infield spot.
The point is you’re wrong. The issue involved in signing V-Mart and/or Beltre is not positional or budgetary flexibility. We can always make that flexibility at a cost of some dollars. Budgetarily, we are not brushing against any limits and will have plenty of salary coming off the payroll at the end of 2011 to make room for such a big $ F/A (Drew $14MM, Ortiz $12.5MM, Papelbon +/-$12MM, Cameron $7.25MM, Scutaro $5MM and Wake $2.5MM, for a total of $53.25MM available).
Since signing either or both of V-Mart and/or Beltre would not roadblock the Sox from bringing in A-Gonz at $23MM/yr., your argument is meritless.
Even though I love Maggs and what he did for Detroit, I hope they don’t resign him. I would have loved to have him back but with VMart signed our lineup would look like this
1) Jackson Cf
2) Guillen 2b
3) VMart DH
4) MCab 1b
5) Maggs Rf
6) Raburn/Boesch Lf
7) Peralta SS
8) Inge 3b
9) Avila C
It doesn’t look like a bad lineup but when I look at 2-9 I see a whole lot of double plays and rally killing. Hard to score runs when everyone is a station to station runner. Even a double in the gap doesn’t ensure a run if someone is on first. Not to mention that first to third won’t be a real option. Signing Crawford and then Maggs would have been the much better route. But maybe DD still has the green light to go after Crawford even though it seems like a longshot now.
Trading for Upton would have been a perfect match for both sides but too bad he has us on his DNT list. I think he has a love for the longball and doesn’t want half of his games at Comerica.
I wouldn’t count on Guillen at 2b, I would just go ahead and pencil in will rhymes or sizemore, and even if he was ehalthy, he would not be batting 2nd.
Hate to break it to you but Guillen, if healthy, will be playing 2b. They’re not going to release him like Sheff. Guillen is an injury risk but he is valueable when healthy and he is an ideal #2 hitter. Not to mention that if he doesn’t do it who out of that list do you think is going to hit there. However, Guillen is in a contract year so I have a feeling that we might actually get some good production out of him this year. I think he’ll suck up his little injuries, like his sore back or groin issues, that usually have me scratching my head. Like it or not, that is our lineup if he is healthy and they resign Maggs. Only difference will be whether Peralta and Raburn/Boesch flip hitting orders. Rhymes even though I like him will be in AAA. Sizemore because he can play 3b will be on the bench with Boesch, Santiago, Kelly and maybe Wells because of his defensive abitlity. I expect DD to make some moves but if we just sign Maggs and call it quits, this is our team.
I wouldn’t count on Guillen at 2b, I would just go ahead and pencil in will rhymes or sizemore, and even if he was ehalthy, he would not be batting 2nd.
Here is a pet peeve of mine: “The Tigers committed $90 million to four players this off season.” That makes it sound like they blew more than half their payroll on 4 players. No, they committed about $29 million in next year’s payroll to four players.
The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to who spent what in the off-season is how much a team has spent on NEXT year’s payroll, and how much they have left to spend. The total value of a contract is meaningless in its impact…those players could all be traded after next year, for all we know.
When you sign a contract to start a new job, do you think “I’ve just signed a contract for $2 million over the next 30 years, with incentives!”, or do you think “I’m going to make $60,000 next year”?
This reminds me of the ’09 Yankee spending spree…reporters crowed that they spent “$400 million in the off-season”, when actually they signed contracts valued at about $60 million, and in doing so CUT payroll by almost $10 million thanks to the bad contracts coming off the books.
that money isnt going to dissapear. thats why its reported. now of course if that person is traded, guess what they will report? the money! Arod and his humongous deal was just dealt to the yanks for Alfonso Soriano!
I wonder…If Derek Jeter leaves, do they shift A-Rod back to his original position of SS or has father time made that impossible? A-Rod had far superior range to Jeter’s